Editing the
FBX Settings

If you update the FBX settings or add modifiers for the .fbx
file, Lumberyard generates an .assetinfo file with the
.fbx file. The .assetinfo file stores the
configuration and modifier settings that are applied when processing the
.fbx file. The original .fbx file remains
intact.

You can find a sample .fbx file in the
lumberyard_version/dev/SamplesProject/Objects/Tutorials/Fbx
directory.

To edit the FBX Settings

In Lumberyard Editor, in the Asset Browser, select the
.fbx file that you want to modify.

Tip

Enter fbx into the
Asset Browser's search bar to find
.fbx files.

Right-click the .fbx file and then choose Edit
Settings.

In the FBX Settings tool, you can specify changes for
the following settings:

Meshes – Modify the settings for static
meshes (.cgf). This tab appears if the file
includes static meshes.

Actors – Modify the settings for actors
(.actor). This tab appears if the file includes
actors.

Motions – Modify the settings for motions
(.motion). This tab appears if the file
includes motions.

PhysX – Modify the settings for PhysX
meshes (.pxmesh). This tab appears if the file
includes PhysX meshes.

Review the status for errors or a success message. Click
OK to return to the settings.

Meshes

Mesh groups are a collection of meshes in your file that you want to process.
By default, all meshes in your file are processed. However, you can manually
exclude individual meshes within your .fbx file. You can
also process multiple mesh groups from a single .fbx
file.

The Meshes tab includes the following settings.

Parameter

Description

Add another mesh

Create a mesh (.cgf) from the
original .fbx file.

Name mesh

Enter a name for the mesh group. This name appears in the
Asset Browser for the
.cgf file.

Select meshes

Specify the meshes to process from your
.fbx file. You should specify the
meshes that you want to render.

For example, if your physics proxy mesh is different than
your render mesh, deselect the physics proxy mesh from the
general meshes to process.

Add Modifier

Add modifiers to specify how you want to process the mesh
group.

You can add the following modifiers:

Comment

Level of Detail

Material

Mesh (Advanced)

Origin

CryPhysics Proxy

Comment

Add one or more comments for the file. For example, you
can add a comment about the change made to the
.fbx file for tracking purposes.
Comments do not affect how files are processed.

Level of Detail

Specify a level of detail (LOD). You
can specify a maximum of five LODs, which are numbered
[0] to [4], with
[0] the highest level of detail. LODs are
optimized meshes with a low polygon count that appears the
further the camera moves from the render mesh.

Click Select nodes to specify the
mesh nodes to include for each LOD.

Note

When you author the mesh in your 3D application, you
can add _lod1,
_lod2,
_lod3,
_lod4,
_lod5 as suffixes to your mesh
names in order to automatically add a Level of
Detail modifier and assign the
appropriate LOD to the level. _lod1
is mapped to [0],
_lod2 is mapped to
[1], and so on.

Material

Materials contain the surface properties of a mesh and the
generated material file (.mtl) stores
the materials of the processed mesh. Names of materials in
the .fbx file are based on the
Name setting for materials in the
.mtl file.

For example, a mesh processed with a file named
myfile.cgf
has a corresponding material file named
myfile.mtl.

You can customize materials with the following
settings:

Update Materials – If
set, updates an existing .mtl
file to use the relevant settings from the
.fbx file. This applies only
to texture map file names.

Remove Unused Materials
– If set, removes materials that are present
in an existing .mtl file, but
not present in the .fbx
file.

Mesh (Advanced)

You can specify the following advanced modifiers for
processed mesh files:

Vertex Precision – You
can specify 16-bit or
32-bit.

Specify 32-bit to set a
higher precision in vertex data and for meshes that
are big in size appear with jagged artifacts.

Merge Meshes – If set,
combines all sub-meshes into a single mesh for
optimization. If disabled, treats each sub-mesh
separately.

Use Custom Normals –
If set, use custom normals when you import a mesh
asset from DCC data. If disabled, Asset Processor
uses the average value.

Change the position (translation), orientation (rotation),
and scale of a mesh relative to how it was authored.

You can specify the following settings:

Relative Origin Node –
Select the transform relative to which the mesh will
be processed. By default, the mesh origin is placed
at the scene position 0,
0, 0 in the
.fbx file.

Translation – Sets the
position offset of the processed mesh.

Rotation – Sets the
orientation offset of the processed mesh in
degrees.

Scale – Sets the scale
offset of the processed mesh.

CryPhysics Proxy

You can specify the following setting:

Physics meshes – Click
the icon to specify the meshes to
use for physics proxies from the
.fbx file. Physics proxies
are meshes that encapsulate render geometry (for
example, hit detection or physics collision) and are
optimized with a low polygon count for better
performance. Primitives such as a cube, sphere or
capsule are best for optimal physics
performance.

Note

If your .fbx file includes a mesh
node with the suffix _phys, the
mesh node automatically adds a new Physics
Proxy modifier.

Actors

Actors are character files with at least one bone and can contain one or more
meshes. By default, all actors in your scene are processed. However, you can
manually exclude individual actors within your .fbx file.
You can also process multiple actors from a single .fbx
file.

This feature can help render performance
during runtime, but Asset Processor can take
longer to process the skinned mesh asset.

Material

You can specify the following settings:

Update materials – Select this option if
you need to return to the settings that were created
from the original FBX file.

Remove unused materials – Select this
option if you want to remove material files in the
.mtl file that are not
present in the FBX file.

Skin

You can specify the following settings:

Max weights per vertex
– Maximum number of bones that can influence
a single vertex.

Weight threshold –
Specify the weight threshold for the vertex. A value
less than the specified value of
(0.001) will be ignored during
import.

Scale actor

You can specify the following setting:

Scale factor – Sets
the multiplier for scaled geometry.

Tangents

You can generate tangents with MikkT or import tangents
and bitangents from an FBX file. To achieve the same
appearance in Lumberyard, we recommend that you use the same
tangent space that you used to bake the normal maps in your
DCC.

You can specify the following settings:

Tangent space –
Defines the tangent space that Lumberyard uses for an
actor.

MikkT – Uses
MikkT to generate the tangents. This is the
default.

From FBX –
Imports the tangents from the FBX file.

Emotion FX – Uses
EMotion FX to calculate the tangents.

Note

The Emotion FX option is for backward
compatibility only. Its use is not
recommended.

Bitangents – Defines
how to generate or read the bitangents.

Use from source
– Uses the bitangents from the FBX file or
that received output from the tangent generator
used (MikkT).

Orthogonal –
Generates the bitangents orthogonal to the tangent
and normal. This is the default setting.

Normalize – When set
to true, Lumberyard normalizes the tangents
and bitangents. When set to false,
Lumberyard doesn't normalize the tangents and bitangents.
The default is true.

UV set – Specifies the
value (0 or 1) from which
to generate tangents. The default setting is
0.

Note

Animation Editor can
store bitangents in case they are not
orthogonal.

If an old actor file is loaded, it will use
the tangents that the
Animation Editor already
generated before the change. This is the default
option until the asset is rebuilt.

If there are no tangent rules set on an actor,
Lumberyard uses the default settings:

Tangent space =
MikkT

Bitangent =
Orthogonal

Normalize =
true

Uv set =
0

Coordinate system change

You can specify the following setting:

Facing direction –
Change the direction that the actor will face by
applying a post transformation to the data.

You can specify Rotate 180 degrees
around the up axis or Do
nothing.

Motions

Motion groups are a collection of motion files (.motion)
in your scene that you want to process. By default, all motions in your scene
are processed. However, you can manually exclude individual motions within your
.fbx file. You can also process multiple motion groups
from a single .fbx file.

Start frame – The
start keyframe of the animation that will be
exported.

End frames – The end
keyframe of the animation that will be
exported.

Coordinate system change

You can specify the following setting:

Facing direction –
Change the direction that the actor will face by
applying a post transformation.

You can specify Rotate 180 degrees
around the up axis or Do
nothing.

PhysX

PhysX groups are a collection of meshes (.pxmesh) in your
scene that you want to process. By default, all meshes in your scene are
processed. However, you can manually exclude individual meshes within your
.fbx file. You can also process multiple mesh groups
from a single .fbx file.